FILE – In this April 8, 2008, file photo, Tennessee coach Pat Summitt gets a hug from Candace Parker (3) after Tennessee beat Stanford 64-48 in the championship game at the Final Four in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament in Tampa, Fla. Summitt, the winningest coach in Division I college basketball history who uplifted the women’s game from obscurity to national prominence during her career at Tennessee, died Tuesday morning, June 28, 2016. She was 64. “She’s touched so many lives in the game of basketball and has grown the game,” Parker said. “She’s changed the way women’s basketball is played. She’s changed the nature of women’s basketball. She changed the way I looked at life. She’s not a person that just talks the talk, she walks the walk as well.” (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File)

LOS ANGELES >> Candace Parker cut through the lane to kiss the ball off the glass with her left hand for the Los Angeles Sparks first basket of the night in their 89-84 win over the Dallas Wings on Tuesday. Then, she pointed to the sky.

Pat Summitt, the coach with whom she had won two national titles during her three years with the Tennessee Volunteers, had passed away that morning at the age of 64 after a five-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease. This was Parker’s tribute to her.

The two-time WNBA MVP led the largest comeback win in franchise history, scoring 25 of her 31 points in the second half against Dallas. She added a season-high 13 rebounds, all while wearing Tennessee orange sneakers with the word “rebound” scribbled on the right toe as a reminder of the way her former coach would glare at her when yelling at her to do just that.

Parker visited Summitt just last weekend, flying to Tennessee between road games against the Minnesota Lynx and the Connecticut Sun. While she has said she does not want to discuss the details of that visit out of respect for the wishes of Summitt’s family, she hardly paused before saying “I love her” when asked what she came away with after her short time in Knoxville.

“She is my coach, she will always be my coach,” said Parker following Thursday’s win over the Atlanta Dream. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for the way in which she lived. A lot of people can go around and talk the talk, but she walked the walk every day. There’s very few people in this world that can do that.”

That feeling of love for Summitt isn’t hard for Sparks head coach Brian Agler to understand. During his 17 years with the WNBA, Agler estimates he has coached more than 10 Lady Vols — and Summit’s impact on players has been consistent.

“They all keep Coach Summitt right up there,” Agler said. “They talk about her as they would talk about their family or their parents or their grandparents. That’s the kind of influence that she’s had.”

Summitt’s impact on lives of players impresses Parker as much as her impact on women’s basketball.

“She not only affected the game, but she changed individual lives,” Parker said. “She’s had a tremendous impact on the way I live my life and the way I’m going to continue to do that.”

While it has been eight years since Parker skipped her final season of collegiate eligibility to play professionally, it’s in the network of former Tennessee players that she has found comfort in the days since Summitt’s passing.

“It’s something I feel she’s prepared us for through her teaching to lean on family,” Parker said. “That’s what the Lady Vol nation is doing.”